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SALEM -- The city of Salem is still looking to secure a supplier for road salt.
During the city council's meeting Tuesday, it voted unanimously to approve a resolution authorizing City Service Safety Director Joe Cappuzzello to enter into a contract for the purchase of road salt.
While council previously authorized Cappuzzello to advertise for bids with the Columbiana County Engineer's Office and enter into a contract to purchase road salt rather than participating in the Ohio Department of Transportation's annual contract, Cappuzzello told council Tuesday the joint bid had been presented to multiple potential suppliers, and none had opted to submit a bid.
"We went to bid with the county, they put out a bid to six different companies, and they received zero responses. That's why we have the resolution to go out there under contract and find salt. It'll be a challenge for us. We think we have a supplier lined up, and once we get this passed, I'll work with [City] Law Director [Brooke] Zellers to get a contract to work with a third party out of Alliance," Cappuzzello said.
Cappuzzello reiterated that with the price of salt rising so much since last year, that the city would only be able to purchase about 80% of the salt it had initially planned for when budgeting $120,000 for salt in 2027. He stressed that the city would likely have to deploy that salt strategically and rely on in increased communication with city residents to help overcome the shortfall.
Cappuzzello also noted that he and Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey had been communicating with many surrounding communities that are also having difficulties securing their road salt for 2027, as well as the city's state representatives and Gov. Mike Dewine's office to "try to understand the situation and how we got to this point.
"It's the world we live in today with this salt situation. The mayor and I were down in Millersburg today and talked to a bunch of other communities. New Philadelphia still does not have any salt. Jefferson County doesn't have salt. It's gonna be a challenge for us this year, and we're just gonna have to educate the public of how we strategically use our salt," Cappuzzello said. "We'll have about 80% of what we were budgeting to receive based on the pricing we have. Even as that 80% limit, it's going to cost us about a $195,000, where last year it cost us about $120,000 for 20% more."
This comes amid major increases in the price per ton bid by suppliers for the Ohio Department of Transportation's annual road salt program which the city and many other surrounding programs typically utilize to purchase their road salt. Under the annual program, participating municipalities place an order for how many tons of salt they want to purchase for the following year and commit to purchasing a minimum of 80% of that total in April before prices are confirmed.
However, Cappuzzello told the city council in its July 7 meeting that bid to supply salt for Columbiana County had come in at approximately $151 per ton for 2027. The figure represents an increase of approximately $92 per ton from the approximately $59 per ton price last year.
Had the city participated in the ODOT contract and purchased the same amount of salt as last year at that price, Cappuzzello said it would have cost the city an additional $150,000.
The city council will meet next at 7 p.m. on Sept 8.